PENTECOST
Pentecost is a major national holiday in Austria, and it is a shame that many Christians don't
celebrate the birthday of the church in America. We celebrate Memorial Day at this time of year and
there is apparently no room on the calendar to squeeze in another holiday. Protestants should also
celebrate Reformation Day on October 31, but that would interfere with Halloween!

Pentecost ranks as the third most important holiday in Austria, and it is always celebrated as a
three-day weekend. Schools, banks and many other institutions remain closed from Saturday through
Monday. Trees are turning green and flowers are blooming after the long, cold winter months, but
it is still too early for the annual onslaught of tourists. These factors make Pentecost a favorite
time to schedule national conferences and retreats. Because Pentecost is the official birthday of
the Christian church, this is especially suitable for Bible conferences and church functions.

Every year, Christian youth from all over Austria meet for a national youth retreat on Pentecost
weekend. The retreat is held in a different major city each year and is the highlight of the year
for many teens. Because most Austrians are Roman Catholic, evangelical congregations are
generally small and their youth groups even smaller. This is the only time when many youth get to
know other believers outside their own small circle of friends.

PENTECOST WEEKEND YOUTH RETREAT, 1969
It was March, 1969, when I assumed the role of youth leader for the Linz Baptist Church. The pastor
informed me immediately that Linz was to host the annual Pentecost Youth Retreat in May. Since the
Baptist Church was the largest evangelical church in this city of a quarter million inhabitants,
we were being asked to provide sleeping quarters and meals for about 150 youth. Fortunately, our
youth were willing helpers and before long, everything was arranged.

A week before the big occasion, the city of Linz made headlines. An ice cream vendor who set up his
stand in a public park was washing his dishes in the contaminated Danube River. Some of his
customers contracted salmonella and a typhoid epidemic broke out. National media jumped on the
report, warning people to avoid the city. Those who lived in Linz were advised to stay in their homes
and to avoid all contact with anyone outside the immediate family. Sporting events and concerts
scheduled for Pentecost weekend were cancelled. The large industrial center was virtually shut
down!

I consulted with local officials and medical experts about what we should do. I explained that our
visitors would be staying in private homes and we would be eating in the church. No one would be
traveling by public transportation and contact with the outside world would be practically
non-existent. The epidemic was contained within a few days and all those infected were quarantined,
so city authorities saw no reason why we should cancel our event.

Because everything had been prepared, we decided to go ahead with the retreat, but informed parents
and youth leaders in other parts of Austria about the situation. They should decide if their youth
could attend.

The retreat was well-attended and to my knowledge, no one stayed away. The typhoid epidemic
ended as abruptly as it started. When the retreat was over and we had cleaned up the church, I drove
home, thanking and praising God for his blessings and protection.

When I got to our apartment, I began to share with Verna how everything had gone, but she suggested
that it might be better to drive her to the hospital. A few hours later our third child, Becky, was
born!

PENTECOST WEEKEND YOUTH RETREAT, 1972
The 1972 Pentecost Youth Retreat was planned well in advance - not by us, but by God himself!

The date, May 22-24, was provided by the calendar and the place had been determined long ago. In 1969,
Linz hosted the retreat, in 1970 it was Vienna and 1971 in Graz. Now it was Salzburg's turn. City
authorities offered to organize meals and accommodations for us. They gave us nearly every room in a
public youth hostel and arranged for us to eat in the Airport Restaurant at special reduced
prices - to stimulate off-season business. The Police Department readily granted us permission to
conduct a street rally in the heart of the city on Saturday afternoon. We wanted to sing, share
testimonies and invite people to an evangelistic service that evening.

Saturday morning, 180 young people from all corners of Austria converged on Salzburg, arriving in
trains, busses and cars, but the city was already buzzing with excitement. U.S. President Richard
Nixon was coming to Salzburg on his way to a summit conference in Russia!

All hotel rooms were booked. Policemen and secret service agents were everywhere! Shiny black limousines
carrying diplomats and high ranking public officials cruised the streets. Prime Minister Bruno Kreisky and
Minister of Finance, Hannes Androsch, were among them.

Word had gotten out and hundreds of young Vietnam-war protestors came to Salzburg from all parts of
Europe to greet him with posters and chants. TV and news teams from all over Europe converged on
the city, prepared to share whatever happened with the rest of the world.

Across the street from the Baptist Church, which was hosting the youth retreat, 20,000 soccer fans
gathered to cheer their teams to victory. Saturday was an important game between Salzburg and Linz.
The police were out in force, knowing that a victory for either side could easily provide
an excuse for rowdies to stage a fight in the city streets. Add to this the chanting radicals who
stalked Salzburg streets, angry that authorities had forbidden them to stage public demonstrations.
They bore posters which declared, "NIXON IS A MURDERER!" and "AMIS OUT OF VIETNAM!" Several youth
attempted to burn an American flag, but were stopped by the police.

Even before the Presidential Jet landed, police cordoned off the airport and allowed no one to get
near unless they had valid airline tickets. But 180 youth participants of the Pentecost Youth Retreat
had special permission to enter! We had a clear view of "Air Force One" from the windows of the
Airport Restaurant while reporters, TV camera teams and demonstrators watched from a distance.

When we gathered for the planned street rally, policemen immediately surrounded us. We showed them our
permit and they stared in disbelief. While we sang gospel songs and invited listeners to the
evangelistic evening, several radicals attempted to grab our microphone. I was able to engage a couple
of young radicals in a discussion about their spiritual needs. They belonged to the
Red Army Faction , also called the Baader-Meinhof group
which later made headlines by kidnappings and staging attacks on public personalities.
The RAF killed 34 and 27 of their members were killed during violence before
they were disbanded.

The young guy in the center with dark brown hair is me and the man wearing shades could be a Secret Service agent.
The girls in the photo below belonged to the RAF.

One girl from our group recognized the Austrian Minister of Finance with his wife and offered them an
invitation to the evangelistic meeting. They declined, but when she looked dejected, they smiled and
showed her invitations which they had already received from other youth. Many strangers attended that
evening and about twenty committed their lives to Christ.

The Pentecost Weekend Youth Retreat closed with the noon meal on Monday. President Nixon had flown to
Moscow. Demonstrators returned to Germany, Holland and France. Participants of the 1972 Youth Retreat
will likely never forget the occasion!

This experience and many others, during our four decades of missionary service taught us that we should
expect the unexpected as part of God's networking with us. We should never consider any meeting
incidental. God may have orchestrated it for some important eternal purpose. This is especially true
in a land where true followers of Christ are a small minority. Our testimony - or silence, can have
far-reaching influence.

Just three months later, another experience underscored that truth.

UNUSUAL VISITORS

In August, 1972, we had a team of young people from "Operation Mobilization" to help us with youth
outreach. One girl on the team was a Jewish Christian whose family name was "Israel" or
perhaps "Israeli", but unfortunately, I don't recall her first name.

We regularly went out into the streets of Linz, inviting young people that we met to visit the
"Katakombe" Youth Center. We often sang a song or two and always left invitations, never knowing who
might respond.

One evening a group of Arabs, perhaps 9-12 of them, walked into the youth center and sat down. Few
of them spoke English and even fewer German, but we served them soft drinks and hot dogs and tried
our best to make light conversation with them. They claimed to be Egyptians visiting Linz and seemed
happy to have found an inexpensive place for recreation and refreshments. We made them feel welcome,
and they returned every night for about a week.

The Jewish girl was gifted in linguistics and translated testimonies and evangelistic messages into
English and what Arabic she knew. Several of the men flirted with her, and I pondered what their
reaction might be if they discovered that she was Jewish.

About the third evening, Israel gave her testimony in English, telling how she had discovered the
Messiah as a Jew. I glanced over to watch the Arabs’ reactions, but most showed no response.
One young man who seemed to have been more interested in the Gospel than the others stared in obvious
disbelief. Later, I saw him again discussing the claims of Christ with several youth, including the
Jewish girl. I was disappointed to notice that he was missing the following night and asked about him.
The men said that he had become ill and returned home. The Arabs came one more night and then were
gone. We prayed that the Word of God would somehow produce fruit for eternity.

Several days later, The Olympic Summer Games began in Munich, Germany. On September 5, 1972, heavily-armed
terrorists belonging to a group calling itself "Black September," jumped a 6-foot chain link fence and
entered the Israeli quarters of the Olympic Village. After a scuffle, in which two Jewish athletes were
killed, the terrorists took nine other members of the Israeli team hostage and demanded a plane for
a flight to Cairo, Egypt. German police decided to attempt a secret attack, but the media broadcast
their plans and the terrorists learned about it on TV. They then demanded and received helicopter
transport to an airport. The Germans bungled a second attempt to free the hostages in the same manner.
The media gave a running account of police activities and the terrorists realized that their fate was
sealed. They killed all of the hostages before police could get to them.

Three of the terrorists survived and were taken into custody. Less than two months later, the German
embarrassment was complete. Two Black September members hijacked a plane and threatened to blow it up
if their three colleagues were not released. The Germans conceded.

As I followed the news, I could not help but ask if our Arab guests might have been involved
in this terrible attack. Munich is only a three-hour drive from Linz. We may never know the whole
truth this side of heaven, but God not only makes no mistakes, with him, there are no accidental
meetings!

PENTECOST WEEKEND YOUTH RETREAT, June 2-4, 1979
Every year, it was a challenge to find a good speaker for the annual youth retreat. Speakers were
sometimes imported from Germany or Switzerland and others were found in Austria. I was totally
taken back when the planning committee approached me to be the main speaker at the 1979 retreat.

Linz had hosted the youth retreat again in 1978 and I was very much involved, but I declined the
invitation to serve on the planning committee for the 1979 retreat. It was being held near Graz
and I was not even planning to attend. Our printing and publishing operation was growing rapidly
and church ministries in three satellite churches, in Steyr, Enns and Passau,
consumed much time. I had turned the leadership of the youth work over to
a gifted young Austrian and was less involved myself.

I accepted the invitation and was permitted to choose the theme, which would become the conference theme. I picked one that I
felt young people needed to know more about, the Church. I divided the subject into three biblical
examples, the Building (Form), the Body (Function) and the Bride (Fellowship).

More than 200 youth had registered for the event, but I especially recall one youth named Franz.
He came up to me after one of the sessions and introduced himself. I didn't recognize him or his
name, so he added, "You led me to Christ three years ago when you had evangelistic meetings
in my town." He remembered the chalk talk that I drew and the message that I preached, which impressed
me. I encouraged him to follow the Lord faithfully and to consider attending a Bible school.

At that time, there was no Bible training institution in Austria. A number of young people who
attended schools in Germany never returned. I had a great burden to open an Austrian Bible
training school.

Let's move ahead another 6 years to 1985.

We had established the Austrian Bible Institute, which was in its second year. An evangelical
Lutheran group also opened a small theological seminary in Austria, so we invited the handful of
students to our school just to get acquainted. One of the students was Franz, whom I had led Christ
in 1976. He said that he had taken my suggestion to get Bible training seriously and the Lord had
called him to be a pastor. He then repeated the entire outline and major points of the messages I
delivered at the Pentecost Youth Retreat six years earlier! He is still serving as Pastor
and I hope his congregation can remember all HIS messages!

A HUMOROUS INCIDENT
Many people cannot imagine God having a sense of humor. I would like to insert a personal experience
of ours that took place on Pentecost Sunday, 1998, in order to show that he actually does.

While eating breakfast on Pentecost Sunday in 1998, we heard “the sound of a mighty rushing
wind” outside! We ran to the window and looked to see where this noise was coming from. Imagine
our astonishment to actually see people with “cloven tongues of fire” above their heads!

You are probably thinking the same thing that witnesses of the New Testament Pentecost thought.
We were “full of new wine!” But I am telling the truth! The roaring sound and the tongues of
fire came from the gas burners of a large hot air balloon which passed our second story kitchen
window and landed in a freshly mowed hay field near the house! And it was all perfectly timed
for Pentecost Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast!